August 2011 Benin Match
Match Setting After a less than stellar first half of the season, the Bosnian Football Federation decided to hold a friendly match, taking advantage of the August FIFA International matchdate, with a lesser squad, in order to boost morale with a comfortable win. Branislav Mikulic nominated the best available to him. Squad The squad was announced on February 3rd and consisted of 23 players, most of which play abroad with the exception of Mehmed Alispahic, Senad Lulic and Haris Handzic, who all play in the Adriatic Superleague. It consisted on 3 GK, 5 Defensemen, 11 Midfielders and 4 Strikers. Hoffenheim, with 2 players, was the most represented team. While the German Bundesliga, was the most represented league with 6 players. Youngster Sanjin Prcic (17 years old), Adnan Secerovic and Ermin Bicakcic were set to have their first international cap, if they stepped on the pitch. The squad list is after the break: 23-man Squad Missing Players Miralem Pjanic was nominated, but withdrawn from the friendly squad, by his manager, Rémi Garde Zvjezdan Misimovic is recovering from a thigh injury, hopefully he can put his injury problems behind and play for the National Team. Boris Pandza is out for a couple of weeks with a knee injury Safet Nadarevic is recovering from a knee injury. Tactics Mikulic used this friendly game to boost his new offensive tactic. A modern 4-3-3 with three attackers to take advantage of the great versatility and attack power of his three best strikers. This isn't a tactic he'll use for everyday matches, since the squad has a lot of talent in the Attacking Midfielders position too, so he took advantage of Pjanic|Pjanic's] forced absence and trieds this new formation. The starting squad and their roles was as follow. Result and Analysis The game was won by Bosnia, with a comfortable scorline, 5-2. Analysis It wasn't an easy match as the F.A. wanted, and definetely not as easy as the scoreline shows, as Bosnia and Herzegovina continues to struggle when holding on to possession, derivated from their poor passing that leads to losing the ball easily in midfield. The game started off quickly as Edin Dzeko scored his 26th international goal in the 3rd minute. The game continued to be balanced, but the Bosnians showed great force and effectiveness in their attacking movement, and closed the match with goals from [Ibisevic (27') and Dzeko (30'). Benin scored right back, in his first dangerous chance at 31', but Dzeko showed that he was really up for the game with his hat-trick in the 33rd minute. In the second half the game continued in the same pace, except that Benin controlled the ball a bit more, but without getting near the area. Dzeko scored his 4th for the day and 29th in the 83rd minute. Finally Benin scored the last goal in the 86th minute. Important Stats Possession % = 45-55 Passes Completed % = 73-78 Shots = 11-9 Clear Cut Chances = 3-1 Long Shots = 0-3 Individual Performances Edin Dzeko completely stole the show with his 4 goals. The forward is in the best moment of his career and hopefully he'll have more oportunities in Manchester City this season. He had a 9.8 rating. Ermin Zec rocked the african defense in his new role. As a trequartista, he has to come deep to get the ball, dribble around and try to generate spaces for his teammates, he did that to perfection, cooperating to 3 assists. Rating = 9.0 Vedad Ibisevic had a great game, playing as a poacher got in the scoresheet once, and assisted Dzeko in one of his goals. His passing was also important, setting up 2 more missed chances.